1. Field
The present invention relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for supporting fast frequency hopping with a code division multiplexed (CDM) pilot in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication system.
2. Background
In a frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) communication system, data is transmitted on different frequency subbands or sub-carriers in different time intervals, which are also referred to as “hop periods”. These frequency subbands may be provided by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), other multi-carrier modulation techniques, or some other constructs. With FHSS, the data transmission hops from subband to subband in a pseudo-random manner. This hopping provides frequency diversity and allows the data transmission to better withstand deleterious path effects such as narrow-band interference, jamming, fading, and so on.
An OFDMA system utilizes OFDM and can support multiple users simultaneously. For a frequency hopping OFDMA system, data for each user is transmitted using a specific frequency hopping (FH) sequence assigned to the user. The FH sequence indicates the specific subband to use for data transmission in each hop period. Multiple data transmissions for multiple users may be sent simultaneously using different FH sequences. These FH sequences are defined to be orthogonal to one another so that only one data transmission uses each subband in each hop period. By using orthogonal FH sequences, intra-cell interference is avoided, and the multiple data transmissions do not interfere with one another while enjoying the benefits of frequency diversity.
An OFDMA system may be deployed with multiple cells, where a cell typically refers to a base station and/or its coverage area. A data transmission on a given subband in one cell acts as interference to another data transmission on the same subband in a neighboring cell. To randomize inter-cell interference, the FH sequences for each cell are typically defined to be pseudo-random with respect to the FH sequences for neighboring cells. By using pseudo-random FH sequences, interference diversity is achieved, and the data transmission for a user in a given cell would observe, over a sufficiently long time period, the average interference from the data transmissions for other users in other cells.
The inter-cell interference can vary significantly from subband to subband at any given moment. To account for the variation in interference across the subbands, a margin is typically used in the selection of a data rate for a data transmission. A large margin is normally needed to achieve a low packet error rate (PER) for the data transmission if the variability in interference is large. The large margin results in a greater reduction in the data rate for the data transmission, which limits system capacity.
Frequency hopping can average the inter-cell interference and reduce the required margin. Increasing the frequency hopping rate results in better interference averaging and decreases the required margin. Fast frequency hopping rate is especially beneficial for certain types of transmissions that encode data across multiple frequency hops and which cannot use other techniques, such as automatic request for retransmission (ARQ), to mitigate the deleterious effects of interference.
Frequency hopping rates are generally limited by channel estimation requirements. For an OFDMA system, the channel response for each subband used for data transmission is typically estimated by a receiver, and the channel response estimate for the subband is then used to coherently demodulate data symbols received on that subband. Channel estimation for each subband is normally achieved based on pilot symbols received on the subband. In a fast-fading communication channel, the fading rate normally prohibits the receiver from combining pilot symbols received on the same subband from previous hops. Thus, to independently estimate the channel response for each hop period, a sufficient number of pilot symbols needs to be transmitted in the hop period so that the receiver can obtain a sufficiently accurate channel response estimate. These pilot symbols represent a fixed overhead for each hop period. In this case, increasing the frequency hopping rate also increases the pilot overhead.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to support fast frequency hopping without increasing pilot overhead in an OFDMA system.